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Capt.
Ray Stachelek
1089 Frenchtown Road
East Greenwich, RI 02818
(401)
884-3794
(401) 323-5439 (cell)
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FISHING REPORTS
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | Hot Time in the Summertime!
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-- Block Island
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Busmen’s Holiday
There may be a small silver lining in the troubled economy after all for some of us charter captains. Bookings have been slower than usual. It’s understandable. Many are looking for work or had their hours cut. Everyone is affected with higher fuel cost, utilities, and food.
There are plenty of holes in my schedule now to wet a line. This has never happen before, especially during the regular fishing season. When you see good conditions to fly fish on the ocean, you take it while it’s still summer. The weather has been perfect lately. Besides, you always need the Intel anyway.
The ride out to Block Island was fast and smooth as the sun rose over the North Rip. Passing the B1 buoy the current was racing toward a westerly direction. New moon tide today had plenty of water movement, perfect time to fish the south side.
Mike Testa was my guest today. He’s an extremely eager and energetic individual who cherishes any time he gets on the water. Mike has been with us a number of times fishing with family and friends. He loves the total experience of fishing and being outdoors.
Fishing during the hot humid, months has many more limitations. The windows of success are much smaller. Bright sunshine, warmer waters will move fish to deeper depths. Today was no different. One does not expect the bite to last for any long duration. Strike while the iron is hot! The trick is to find what works in a very limited amount of time that you have. The earlier you find this out, the better your fishing will be obviously.
Here is some information that may help.
The waters around Block Island are unbelievably clear compared to the upper bay. Visibility may be up to 25 feet. Before I leave my house I make sure I have clear stealthy fly lines on board. The prep starts there. Make sure you have some type of poppers and crease flies too. There will be more on that later. Fishing with sink lines is beneficial in the morning with low light conditions. As the sun rises higher in the sky, you’ll notice a change in attitude with the stripers. That’s because these wary flats minded stripers become line shy. The suns angle is now penetrating perpendicular to the ocean floor. Dark fly lines contrast with the environment.
Now is the time to switch to a clear line. You’ll notice that the stripers are still holding close to the bottom. Strip after strip produces no results. Your fly simply will not get down into the strike zone. What gives? There’s not much you can do in this situation other than to put on a heavier fly. Anything else will give your tackle away. The rub! Clear fly lines are only manufactured in the intermediate/ floating ranges. That’s when you tie on some type of popper. Most of these stripers are enjoying the benefit of the passing current. There hasn’t been much bait supply lately in waters around the 14 feet mark we have been fishing. They will rise to the surface presentation (as unbelievable as that sounds) due to water clarity and noiseless condition. I was amazed too that a fly higher in the water column like a streamer did not produce. The noise is important with poppers to get their attention. Make it look like a struggling baitfish caught in the current. You’ll be surprised too!
Rap it up!
The striper bite is best in early morning naturally. Bluefish will gradually replace the bass. These fish including bluefish are line shy too. I kid you not! Try alternate fishing methods besides fly fishing. Stealth conditions and casting long distances away from the boat becomes important in the brilliant sunshine. Make plenty of surface noise later on in the mornings. Summertime is not fast easy fishing. It’s angling! There is still enough action to satisfy your appetite during the slower months of summer to get you bye.
Mike Testa released this Block Island striper.
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Captain Ray
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BLOCK (Island)BUSTER
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-- Block Island
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BLOCK – Buster on the 4th of July
Since the start of the striper season back in early May, all of our angling has been in upper Narragansett Bay. And why not! There was some good striper fishing here in our own back yard. There was no reason to leave. There were plenty of double digit stripers following the silversides and bunker when they cooperated. But every day was different. The striper fishery lacked the consistency of last year. Still there was no reason to complain. Sure, gas prices were higher this year, but nothing compared to the record fuel prices we would see in July. Fishing was hit or miss but you didn’t have to run far.
June’s weather pushed us further south toward Jamestown and cooler waters. Providence still had its flotilla of bait dunkers and the place continued to fish well. We never got the boat north of Gaspee Point. It was just too stress to enjoy the experience in a war zone of boats.
Fast forward, the summertime has changed the fishing season once again. We splashed the boat for the first time on the ocean front on Fourth of July weekend. The weather/winds were favorable as we made the break through the West Wall gap. We pointed our bow toward Block Island. The seas were calm as we headed into the fog of Block Island Sound. Today we had two extra pairs of young eyes on watch. Jeff Paul and his friend Steve were college friends at Boston University, somehow landed work together in New York City. It took Jeff awhile to get acquainted with our GPS system. He kept saying TOM… TOM, not Garmin. We don’t use that stuff out here! That’s only for street wise people.
After a 14 mile run we started working the high cliffs on the western side of the island. Steve had no experience whatsoever with a fly rod but did have some knowledge with spinning tackle. He talked about his many adventures on Martha’s Vineyard casting plugs into the surf. Our drifts were slow. We started to cover more ground by trolling small tubes on mono. It is a good method of locating a few stripers rather quickly in calm waters. It wasn’t long before Steve’s rod was bent over fighting a feisty striper. After a few stripers on the tube we felt we had found them. Steve switched to casting plugs while Jeff started to fly fish. Jeff landed some nice fish in the next two hours. The action curtailed.
The captain gave the orders for all lines in. As you would have guessed, the last cast before moving produced an experience Jeff would never forget. Jeff has been tying a few flies for several years now. He’s finally getting deeper into all aspects of the game. He decided to tie on a very large deceiver type of green and yellow he dreamed up during the winter months. Jeff has worked to be an excellent caster. Soon that large bulky fly flew through the air 90 feet. After a short pause to let it sink and a few strips, the line went tight like never before. This is Jeff’s best catch to date on a fly especially noted that he created and tied the pattern. Oh’ what a feeling!
Jeff Paul is tired but all smiles after a lengthy fight with a 19 lbs Block Island striper.
He released the brute unharmed on Independence Day giving her its freedom.
Steve enjoyed the day casting plugs into the clear waters. He is now contemplating taking up fly fishing after watching his friend enjoy the experience.
The 4th was a Blockbuster for sure. |
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Captain Ray
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Empire Strikes Back!
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Cast a Fly Charters skipper, Capt. Ray Stachelek reports,
If you can’t stand the heat!
Water temps north of the mid-bay islands are nearing 70 degrees. Daytime temps have been above seasonal average too. Add that to the record temps we had three weeks ago and the cumulating effect has resulted with unbelievable high water temps. The bay is warmer than ever when you consider the time of year. Normally the bay would be somewhere around 66 degrees. This means that some warm water species will appear sooner than normal. This will also preclude some good striper fishing north of Conimicut Point to Providence. These stripers will slowly release to cooler, more tolerable waters. Expect to see the exodus of silversides from the warmer estuaries. Their reproduction is triggered by rising water temperatures and intense daylight. This cycle too has been completed much earlier than expected. Fly fishermen should look for crab hatches from the mid bay islands to the toll bridges. Look for school stripers feeding on bottom creatures with the lack of smaller baitfish forage. Many of these smaller stripers will remain with us throughout the summer months. They tend to spread out over wide areas and find enough food to sustain themselves thru the hot months. Think bottom! Blues should dominate with the abundance of adult bunker in open water.
The Empire Strikes Back!
This week three die hard fly anglers from upper New York State visited the Ocean State for some rest, relaxation, and a major dose of striper fishing. It was kind a busmen’s holiday of sorts for John Warakomski, owner/operator of the “Redd Rose Bed & Breakfast” in Skaneateles, N.Y. who operates a guide service on the Finger Lakes Region. This year marked his second return. Tagging along was John were close friends Robert Lewis and Charlie McLoughlin …. Two eager sports ready to do battle.
We had great conditions for fly fishing on back to back days. The wind stayed down making it enjoyable to cast and control our boat drifts. We were entertained by the Air National Guard Squadron practicing for the upcoming weekend air shows.
We found plenty of adult bunker the first morning. Pods were breaking the surface around the mouth of the Green River. Nothing really disturbing them except a few harbor blues. We putted around the upper bay picking up a few stripers in selected location. A few bluefish came over the rail. We had several cutoffs of larger fish. All toll, striper fishing was on the slow side. The bite was consistent throughout the day with the overcast skies. Our last striper was caught near one o’clock. Most were on the small side but we did catch numbers.
Second day we ventured to cooler water. Launched at Wickford and found the mother lode of pogies inside the break wall. Surprisingly again, nothing seems to agitate these schools. The tidal currents were moderate this week. The trick to finding stripers today on the fly was to find locations that had both structure and currents. That eliminated a lot of good shoreline that seemed stagnate of current flow. Those would be normally productive at this time of year if the weather had been cooler. The heat has definitely had its effect on bay condition.
We caught some quality fish today, but our numbers were slightly down from yesterday. Not a bluefish tethered all morning. That fact may have saved some tying time next winter. Most stripers fell to Angel Hair streamers on full sink lines with moderate stripping in 15 feet of water.
John’s best striper was the pool winner
Runner-up Bob took second place with this fish.
Cheers! This was Bob’s very first striper.
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Captain Ray
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More reports-- Upper Narry Bay, June 10
-- Upper Narragansett Bay, May 23
-- Rhody IceBreaker
-- October 4th
-- South County
-- South County 09-19
-- Bonito...
-- Joe Herbert, June 27th
-- Mike Testa
-- Joe Herbert 06-12
-- Joe Mendozza
-- Joe Herbert
-- Hightechtoo
-- This Week, May 24, 2007
-- Good Spring Fishing
-- 6th Annual Rhody IceBreaker
-- Spring
-- South County, RI 11-05
-- September 11
-- Narragansett Bay
-- Upper Narragansett Bay
-- First trip of the season
-- Family Reunion
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-- This weeks report - Tricks of the trade!
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